UM Honors Blog 2021-2022

         W.D. Auden's poem that most struck me was "Mus ée des Beaux Arts." It truly emphasizes the epidemic of human selfishness and self-absorption. In events of immense meaning that point to the existence of God, many people still do not respond appropriately.to these milestones. In the miracle of human life, as the poem reveals, many are still concerned with their personal feelings. Though people are arriving into this life who are all image-bearers of the Almighty God, there are still some who are resentful and focus on how an addition to the family could affect their lives. "For the miraculous birth, there always must be children who did not specially want it to happen," says Auden (lines 6-7). On the other hand, some are more indifferent than anything else. This lack of caring and empathy or lack of emotions surrounding significant life circumstances for other people is the most alarming of all. They hints at humans becoming dehumanized as they are m...

 Auden's "As I Walked Out One Evening" struck a different chord with me. So many times when people talk about the kind of love they want and desire they do not know the words to use. But they do not have to fear, Auden's poems gives them the words to express how they feel. This love that Auden describes, seems like the purest kind of love to me. It's enduring. It defies logic. It changes one's way of life. We all yearn deep down for this kind of love. If it was not for poets like Auden we would yearn and yearn and yearn and yet never have the words. We try and grasp at straws to nail down how this love makes us feel but at the same time it feels fleeting.  But, just like all things, this love is not eternal. Auden paints this beautifully in his poem in such a way that it almost does not even seem to hurt to acknowledge that this love is not eternal. The beauty of this love is enough to assuage the pain that comes with knowing that it is not eternal.  I comment...

      According to W.H. Auden, life goes on. While you might be at a pivotal point in your life that could change its course forever, someone else is having the least eventful night of their lives. As someone is grieving the most significant loss they will experience, you can also be receiving the news of your dreams. All of life is happening at once. All life is significant to the individual and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Although, I believe all are significant in the eyes of God.  Auden communicates this through poetry, specifically in Musée des Beaux-Arts and .        Musée des Beaux-Arts, translates to Muesem of Fine Arts. The poem given this title entails comments on grief, life, death, and the slow march of time. In the first stanza, Auden lists several highs and lows of life that need and influence each other without ever meeting. The babe prayed for by those leaving this earth, hoping that they could improve what wa...

       There was a specific quote that really stuck out to me in these poems from Auden. The quote from his poem "As I Walked out One Evening". It states "In headaches and in worry / Vaguely life leaks away, / And Time will have his fancy / To-morrow or to-day." This really grabbed my attention because pretty much every adult that I have had a conversation with has said something along the lines of "don't take these moments for granted, life is short, and in a blink of an eye you're all grown up". Honestly, even though I'm only eighteen, I understand that there is so much truth to that. I believe that part of the reason it holds so much weight is because we as humans tend to spend so much of our time here worrying about various things. Some things are big deals like finances and jobs, others are more trivial like drama and whatnot. But we are always thinking and worrying about our next step or what's to come instead of actually just enjoyin...

     W.H. Auden's love life was scandalous. In his day, being gay was absolutely improper. His marriage to Erika Mann wasn't one of romance, but of convenience. And his affair with fellow poet, Chester Kallman, didn't last.      So it makes sense that his poem "As  I walked out One Evening", turns love into something depressing and fleeting. Anyone who has ever had a relationship not founded on true Love, Love founded in faith and in the One who stands outside time, knows that it doesn't last. "Until death do us part" is hardly literal, especially in modern and post-modern times. Even then, death is still an ending. Time takes its toll on a relationship, or it makes it stronger.     Perhaps this is why the dating world has turned into one of brief, passionate battles and one-night-stands. There is no credibility or commitment expected because this "love" isn't expected to last. We've conceded to the idea that "love" is bri...

       Death wins in the end- it’s a common theme throughout these poems. Both of these writers discuss how people have become so focused on the pointless rat race of life that they have lost all empathy towards others. This is especially evident in Auden’s poems, particularly through the representation in “Musée des Beaux Arts” when people ignore Icarus falling from the sky. People have lost all feelings for each other, but we all march slowly onward to our unavoidable fate of death. All the work, relationships, and everything we do in between is meaningless.             The bureaucracy and civilization are portrayed in a negative light throughout both series of poems and is contrasted with positive nature imagery. Civilization and industrialization are leading us closer and closer to our deaths, making it easier for us to drift apart and become immune to the sorrows that relate us as humans through escapes of...

In Church Going , Philip Larken tries to discount his visits to an old church building. He associates this icon of Christianity with ignorance and superstition, wondering if "delirious women" will come to "pick simples for cancer" and so forth (lines 28-31). Yet after saying he "Reflect[s] the place was not worth stopping for," he admits: "Yet stop I did: in fact I often do" (lines 18-19). Why then does the man feel compelled to stop? Aubade  may lend a clue. Here, Larken struggles with mortal dread, the fear of death. Moreover, he recognizes that "religion" provided a way to dispel this fear: "Religion used to try...Created to pretend we never die" (lines 22-24). Those of us who have been made believers in Christ understand that the Old-Time Religion is much more than a superstition. We have a Living Hope through Whom we will never die. Those verses on the lectern could have read: " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered i...